2 Pronouns

 

“We are going to start with pronouns. Pronouns point to people and things without naming them. You will understand what they are from these examples in Latin and English. The first group are called Singular pronouns because they point to one person. The second group are called Plural pronouns because the point to several persons. Repeat after me:”

Latin and English Pronouns (A)

Singular

egowhich meansI

tūyou

ishe

eashe

idit

 

Plural

nōswhich meanswe

vōsyou all

eīthey – male

eaethey – female

eathey – things

 

“Ok, what do you know about verbs?” Verbs, I repeated, hazy about the meaning.

• The Verb sum

“A Verb is a word that describes an action. For example, in English: see, give, go, went, consider, prepare, think, teach, explode. So many actions! Some verbs – is, seem, become – also describe states of being.”

“Each verb comes in different Forms. Forms are the different ways words are sounded and spelled; different forms of the same word have different meanings. See, saw, seen! The same verb, but three different forms. Explode! Exploded! Exploding! Sometimes the forms are very different: is, were, will be!”

“So, take the verb ‘is’. So useful, the most common verb of all. In English it has different forms, such as ‘is’, ‘am’ and ‘are’. Each of these sentences is made of a pronoun followed by the verb ‘is’ in the correct form.”

 

 

English Pronouns plus Forms of ‘is’ I am.We are.

You are.You all are.

He is.They are.

She is.

It is.

 

“The Subject of a verb is what does the action; in English the subject usually comes before the verb. The subject of ‘The tomatoes are red’ is ‘The tomatoes’.”

“In Latin the verb that corresponds to ‘is’ in English is called sum. Paired with pronouns, its forms look like this.” She wrote them in the air with her finger:

Latin Pronouns with forms of sum

ego sumwhich meansI am

tū esyou are

is esthe is

ea estshe is

id estit is

 

nōs sumuswhich meanswe are

vōs estisyou all are

eī suntthey (male) are

eae suntthey (female) are

ea suntthey (neuter) are

 

“Each pronoun has only one verb form it can be the subject for. To make this clearer, let me draw you a little chart. Write this down carefully: it is very important. These are all the forms of sum with their corresponding pronouns:”

The Conjugation of sum, Present tense, with Pronouns (B)

SingularPlural

1st Personego sumI amnōs sumuswe are

2nd Persontū esyou arevōs estisyou all are 3rd Personis ea id esthe she it iseī eae ea suntthey are

“When the subject is Singular, then the Verb must be Singular in Number. When the Subject is Plural, then the verb must be Plural in number.”

 

“Verbs and pronouns also come in three different Persons. The verbs sum and sumus are called 1st Person. The verbs es and estis are called 2nd Person. The verbs est and sunt are called 3rd Person.

The pronoun and the verb must have the same number and person; you cannot mix and match. This is called Agreement of Number and Person.”

“The subject of ‘is’ or est can also be a Noun. A noun is the name or label of a person, place, or thing: Latinitas, Menaechmus, Julia, the Romans, the boy, the girl, the tomato, men, women, potatoes – all nouns. There are as many nouns as there are things in the world you can name. Here are two nouns. Put these in your Vocabulary:”

adulescēnsyoung adult – “Someone in their 20’s,” she added.

geminītwins (male)

 

“When a noun is the subject of a verb, the verb is most often in the 3rd person. Since ‘young adult’ is one person, it goes with the 3rd Person Singular form. Since ‘twins’ are plural, it goes with the 3rd Person Plural.”

Noun Subjects with 3rd Person Verbs (C)

Adulescēns est.A young adult is.Geminī sunt. Twins are. I looked up and asked, twins are what?